Occasionally it is necessary to have a railway car that can be shifted sideways for clearance purposes. An example of this are the coke quenching cars used in coke manufacturing plants. A sideways shift of six inches may be necessary to properly align the car for loading and unloading coke. Cars that are displaced this amount may not be transported across country legally since they exceed standards set down by regulation. Accordingly, it is desirable to have a car which may be positioned symmetrically on its trucks for transportation to the working site, and then shifted sideways with a minimum of expense and effort.
In the prior art it is known to provide cars which can be shifted sideways relative to their wheels and the tracks. However, these prior art devices necessitate the use of extremely expensive and large cranes to lift up the car and shift it sideways while the connection points between the car and the trucks are altered. Generally this operation cannot take place at the location where the car is to be used and thus the car must be moved to an intermediate area where the side shifting operation can be completed with the assistance of cranes. My invention provides an improved design which permits the desired side shifting to be done at the working location with a minimum of time and expense. An expensive crane is no longer needed and the number of men involved for the operation is reduced.